Fallen empire

This article is considered accurate for the current version (2.3) of the game.

Enigmatic Observers finishing a battlecruiser

Fallen empires are millennia old extremely powerful AI empires that have become stagnant over the ages. Unlike normal empires, a Fallen Empire is fully developed at the start of the game, but due to their large and powerful fleets they should not be provoked until your fleet strength and technology is comparable. They always start with two fleets between 40k and 150k Fleet Power. Fallen Empires use a unique ship and station art style which is exclusive to them, which distinguishes them from ships of ordinary empires; there are visual variants of this style and different weapon and gear selections for each type of Fallen Empire, but the general number of slots is about equal.

It is impossible to vassalize a Fallen Empire, and they are rarely interested in peace offers short of total surrender to all demands once a war has begun. When engaging in a conflict with them, it is essential that an empire be fully prepared to deal with the consequences and be prepared to follow through on any demands made. Any empire can make claims on a Fallen Empire system regardless of the War Philosophy Policy.

There are 4 types of Fallen Empires, 5 with Synthetic Dawn, and only one of each type can exist in a game. The max number of Fallen Empires within the game depends on the galaxy size. However if a galaxy is too populated (both regular empires and fallen empires sliders have been set to max) then some Fallen Empires might not be created. This does not happen every time and depends entirely on empire placement.

A Fallen Empire's species is randomly generated, but there is a 5% chance for them to be picked from any of the pre-made species if the species in question have not already spawned on the map and are marked with "Spawn as Fallen". For example, it is possible for a human Fallen Empire to be generated.

In the player's Contact list, they are listed under their own section ("Fallen Empires").

All Fallen Empires begin the game in Sleeping status. Despite their size and power, the Fallen Empires will remain passive, staying in their borders unless provoked. They have the Lethargic Leadership and Empire In Decline civics, which restrict them from colonizing and conquering worlds and building new ships. However they will get new fleets yearly if their Fleet Power is low and they are at peace (8 Battlecruisers and 10 Escorts).
Unlike other AI empires - which require the completion of a special research project before communication is established - Fallen Empires will instantly contact empires who unwittingly enter their space, having been aware of the empire before it left its home system.

Once revealed, organic Fallen Empires are typically Dismissive towards normal empires, and will not accept trades or agreements of any kind. They always start with their borders closed, but some Fallen Empires will open them and accept trade if relations improve sufficiently to become patronizing.

Sleeping Fallen Empires have a modifier that reduces their ship upkeep and build cost by 50%. This modifier is kept when they awaken.

Requests are one time events that have a drawback in exchange for greatly increasing a Fallen Empire's Opinion and an increased chance of receiving gifts. Accepting a request grants a decaying +100 opinion while refusing gives a decaying -50 opinion. Requests are not available if at war or the empire is genocidal.

Tasks are missions to go to war against another empire within 20 years to fulfill the goals of a Fallen Empire in exchange for greatly increased Opinion and an increased chance of receiving gifts. Fortunately only your rivals can be picked as targets. Tasks can only be given to player Empires. Fulfilling a task grants a decaying +100 opinion while refusing gives a minor -25 opinion. However failing the task by not completing it in time gives greater Opinion penalties. If the target empire is destroyed or changes policy on its own the task is canceled without any effect on Opinion. Tasks are not available if at war or if the empire is genocidal.

Demands are ultimatums from Fallen Empires if their opinion drops below -100. Submitting grants +25 opinion but rejecting the demands will grant the Fallen Empire the Punishment Casus Belli which they will always use and start a war. If accepted the effects are usually identical to losing the war about these goals, except without war the Ruler is not executed and there is no danger to lose ships in a possibly futile battle. If the Fallen Empire was rivaled by the offending empire they will skip making the demands and declare war to impose them from the start. AI empires always accept demands unless their Fleetpower is above 50k, in which case the demand will be accepted only 10% of the time. If a Fallen Empire lost any planet in a war they will stop making demands regardless of Opinion.

Gifts are sent by some Fallen Empires to empires they're either Patronizing towards or which accepted a request or completed a task and are always positive and without any drawbacks. Accepting a gift also grants a decaying +50 opinion while refusing it for any reason gives a decaying -50 opinion. To be tagged as a gift recipient the empire must have less than 100k Fleet Power and not be at war.

The gift MTTH is 100 years

x2 if not Patronizing Relations or Neither Enigmatic Relations and either accepted or fulfilled a task

x0.25 if Enigmatic Relations and accepted a Task

x0.1 if Enigmatic Relations and Completed a Task

x0.5 if Patronizing Relations and accepted a Task

x0.25 if Patronizing Relations and completed a Task

x0.75 if Opinion 75

x0.75 if Opinion 100

x0.75 if Opinion 150

x0.75 if Opinion 200

As a next step, the specific gift is rolled. Every gift can be granted more than once to any Empire, with the following weights:

Awakened Empires stop being passive and make a bid to dominate the galaxy or defend it from a Crisis (based on the form of Awakening). Unlike Fallen Empires, an Awakened Empire can build new ships, colonize planets, and conquer worlds. Awakened Empires have considerable technological and starting resource advantages even compared to mid- or late-game empires, and thus their awakening can have drastic consequences for a game in progress but also make them one of the best guardian forces in the galaxy.

Their Civics will be set to Revanchist Fervor (+1 Monthly Influence) and Ancient Caches of Technology (+50% Resources from Jobs). The loss of their previous civics allows them to expand and build ships without restrictions.

Their Energy, Minerals, Food and Influence storages are filled.

They instantly receive an additional fleet.

If a default empire has more than 50k Fleet Power, the event will trigger a 2nd time

The reinforcement Event available for Sleepers can no longer trigger for them however.

Upon awakening, a Fallen Empire's entry in the Contacts list is updated with a new name and is placed in the "Others" section instead of "Fallen Empires".

A mechanic affecting awakened Fallen Empires to prevent them from permanently deciding the fate of weaker empires, decadence slowly weakens their ascendancy and makes it possible to temporarily submit to a Fallen Empire, only to throw it off later when their success has blinded them.

Decadence starts 20 years after a Fallen Empire has awakened

It increases monthly and accumulates faster the larger the awakened empire is and the more subjects it has

It also seems to not accumulate while the awakened empire is guardian of the galaxy

The chance for Decadence gain is rolled monthly, with the chance scaled based on the size of the awakened empire and it's vassals (+0.5% per planet).

Every Time the chance is rolled, decadence increases by 2.

maximum decadence is 100, which impacts the following penalties:

-66% Job Resource Production

x2 Vassal opinion penalty for having less fleet power than all of them combined

When an endgame Crisis occurs a Fallen Empire can awaken after 5 years with the declared goal of ending said crisis. If one of them has already awakened before the crisis, they will become guardians as soon as the crisis starts. Guardians have protecting the galaxy as their sole goal. If the Empire awakened before the crisis they will stop their vassalization plans and attempt to rally the galaxy instead. Only one Guardian Awakening can occur.

Guardians of the Galaxy will always agree to a Federation no matter what opinion they held before the awakening.

The chance for any Fallen Empire to awaken is rolled outside of moddable code, as such no details about the chances can be given.

Only the Enigmatic Observers, Keepers of Knowledge, and Ancient Caretakers can become Guardians. The Holy Guardians or the Militant Isolationists will never awaken as guardians and should they have awakened before the crisis, they will continue with their domination plan instead.

Once awakened, the Guardian empire goes through the full awakening effects. All player empires will be notified. All AI empires will get one of the following Opinion bonuses towards the Awakened Empire to cooperate with it (equal chances):

Crisis Fighter (+100 Opinion)

Crisis Fighter (+50 Opinion)

No modifier

Once the crisis has been defeated the Guardian empire will leave the current Federation and become a regular empire.

The Ancient Caretakers will not awaken as Guardians during the Prethoryn Scourge or Extradimensional Invaders crises. However they are guaranteed to awaken if the Contingency activates right after the sterilization hubs come online. This happens in addition to the Guardian awakening mechanics, possibly allowing for two Guardians if another Fallen Empire also awakens.

The default type of awakening, an upstart awakening can happen if a standard player or AI country becomes too strong in Fleet Power or has managed to conquer Fallen Empire worlds. They decide that the young empires are becoming too powerful and set out to impose their primacy on the normal empires.

The requirements are as following:

The game reaches end game year, they are not at war, and their total Fleet Power of all fleets is above 40,000

A default empire is getting too strong (above 50k Fleet Power with all fleets combined) or has conquered a Fallen Empire world.

This awakening can only happen once.

It cannot happen if a Guardian of the Galaxy has already awakened.

The event has a MTTH of 50 years modified as following:

x0.5 if a default empire has more the 75k Fleet Power with all fleets combined.

x0.1 if a default empire owns a formerly Fallen Empire-controlled world

If there is more than one Fallen Empire in the game, the time is multiplied by the number of Fallen Empires (it is unclear if that includes no longer existing ones). This offsets the increased chance for one of them to awaken due to higher total numbers

Note that because having a fleet power above 75k is essentially prerequisite to conquering a Fallen Empire's world(s), doing so effectively reduces the MTTH of any fallen empire awakening to 25 years.

If the Leviathan DLC is present and enabled, an Ancient Rival may be chosen to start a War in Heaven. The weights are:

40% A Fallen Empire with the opposite Ethic is picked as rival, if existing

20% A Fallen Empire with a random Ethic is picked as Rival. This can hit the opposing Ethic by coincidence

40% No Rival is picked, and thus no War in Heaven can happen

Every empire near an Awakened Empire will receive a request to become a subject. Refusing the request will add -200 Opinion towards the Awakened Empire and cause them to declare war shortly afterwards.

Awakened Empire

Original Fallen Empire

Subject

Can become Guardians

Benevolent Interventionists

Enigmatic Observers

Signatory: No diplomatic autonomy, purges or slavery but the Benevolent Interventionists will join the war should subjects be attacked

Doctrinal Enforcers

Holy Guardians

Dominion: Pay 25% of Energy and Minerals income and ethics shift towards Fanatic Spiritualist if not Gestalt Consciousness

Watchful Regulators

Keepers of Knowledge

Satellite: Pay 33% of Research Production and outlaw AI

Jingoistic Reclaimers

Militant Isolationists

Thrall: Cannot build new starbases and must pay 25% of Energy and Minerals income but can declare wars on other Thralls

If the Doctrinal Enforcers defeat a Sleeping Empire in war, changing the Sleeping Empire's ethics will cause them to become a Holy Guardians Sleeping Empire.

War in Heaven is a special event where two Fallen Empires (usually of opposing ethics) awaken and launch a great war against one another, with the normal empires acting as satellite states in their game.

The normal awakening must have happened and the event must have picked this Empire as the "Old Rival". See Upstart Awakening for details.

They are still sleeping, not at war, and their fleet power is above 40k.

No other rival has awakened.

50% chance to occur every 5 years.

The odds of a War in Heaven depend on the number of fallen empires in the galaxy:

2 Fallen Empires

18%: War against the other Fallen Empire.

82%: No war.

3 Fallen Empires

26%: War against the Fallen Empire of the opposing Ethic.

5%: War against a random Fallen Empire.

69%: No war.

4 Fallen Empires

40%: War against the Fallen Empire of the opposing Ethic.

5%: War against a random Fallen Empire.

55%: No war.

If a Rival is picked, it will awaken after 10 years. It receives all the bonuses of an Awakened Empire and neither empire will engage each other for two years.

Once the War in Heaven starts both Awakened Empires have the mutual Wargoal of War in Heaven, which causes a Total War. They will each spawn one additional fleet, two if any default empire has above 50k Fleet Power. Finally, all default Empires will receive the Choice event.

Each regular Empire that is not involved in a war is presented with the choice to join either side or stay neutral. There are 4 options:

Join the First Awakened Empire

Join the Second Awakened Empire

Pick neither side

Vassal empires will always follow their Overlord and subjects of either Awakened Empire will be forced to side with it.

Choices and AI Weighting:

AI empires with less than 20k Fleet Power and no Federation will side with an Awakened Empire based on their ethics

AI empires with more than 20k Fleet Power or that are part of a Federation with a human player will stay neutral

AI empires with less than 20k Fleet Power that are part of an AI Federation will pick at random

genocidal empires will never pick a side

Empires that side with one of the Awakened Empires will receive a free Guarantee of Independence from their patron lasting 10 years, become its subjects and join the war on the patron's side.

Once one of the Awakened Empires is defeated vassals of the winning side that contributed to the warscore will receive planets from the losing side vassals unless they are too far from the borders. The League of Non-Aligned Systems will still have to fight the remaining Awakened Empire and the War in Heaven is still considered ongoing.

This event will iterate over all applicable empires to find the Leader for the Non-Aligned Empires. Monthly a random Non-Vassal Default empire at peace that has not declined this round before will be offered the Presidency until all have declined or a leader is found. The event groups Empires based on fleet power:
> 100k Fleet power, >90k (going down to >10k in 10k steps), and finally everyone that is left.
The AI only has a 1/100 weight to pick up the leadership position, leaving it highly likely for the player.

After the leader has been picked, all non-Vassal default Empires (including those that declined Leadership before) are offered one chance to join the "League of Non-Aligned Powers" Alliance (this is not a Federation). Afterwards joining requires the normal Alliance Diplomacy approaches.

Fanatic Purifier and Metalhead AIs will never choose becoming leader or joining the League.

If Both Fallen Empires are defeated, a player president of the League acquires the respective Achievement.

If an empire destroys a Holy World with a Colossus the Holy Guardians will always awaken and declare a war of subjugation. This type of awakening can happen regardless of other Awakened Empires, it can even happen during a War in Heaven. Aside from the war against the defiler they will act like normally awakened Doctrinal Enforcers and try to dominate the galaxy.

A Machine Intelligence Fallen Empire that is the truly enigmatic Fallen Empire, the Ancient Caretakers are the remnant of a great conflict in the galactic history. They have been part of something called the 'Custodian Project', an initiative to construct and maintain a number of ringworlds as a refuge for biological sapients fleeing some unknown menace.

The Ancient Caretakers do not hold a personal opinion of any empire and unlike any other Fallen Empire they are totally unpredictable. They may offer gifts for no reason or request assistance with tasks that can give a permanent bonus or a temporary but serious penalty. Ancient Caretakers do not declare wars but can be declared war upon. They do not even understand insults.

Ancient Caretakers have a grey and orange motif for their ships, stations and cities, as well as a different texture featuring integrated circuit patterns.

The previous great conflict the Ancient Caretakers refer to was a former Contingency cycle. As such, as soon as the Contingency activates, it will attempt to corrupt the Ancient Caretakers. They have a 66% chance of severing the connection and activating their Final Defense Protocols (Guardians of the Galaxy awakening) and a 33% chance to be corrupted by it and start attacking every other empire (Berserkers). Each Awakening has a unique civic to differentiate them. The chance to awaken a Custodian or Berserker is rolled at the start of the game so reloading a previous save will not alter the result.

Ancient Caretakers cannot awaken any other way nor can they be the Ancient Rival and thus be part of a War in Heaven. Unlike other Guardian empires they will not try to form or join a Federation.

Allow inoculations: Sent to organic empires. MTTH is 100 years. A negative happiness modifier is applied, until the results show themselves. 10 years later the positive or negative results will appear. MTTH is shortened to 66% if they awakened in the meantime.

Attack Empire: With a MTTH of 100 years, an Empire will be asked to attack a fellow empire. Unlike other tasks this one can target empires that refused requests or tasks from the Ancient Caretakers. The time for the attack is 20 years, with up to 1 year overtime.

Colonize a planet: With a MTTH of 200 years, the Custodians request the colonization of a Planet. The planet will be near or inside the player borders and eligible for colonization, when the request is given. Within 20 years at least 5 grown pops must be on the colonized planet. Care should be taken if the habitable worlds setting was raised because this task does not add a point of interest on the galaxy map.

Stop Waging War: With a MTTH of 100 years the empire is tasked to outlaw war. Empires that already do are excluded. If accepted, the Policy must be changed to No Wars within 20 years.

Stop Colonizing: With a MTTH identical to Stop Waging war, the empire is tasked with not colonizing anymore. This task can no longer appear after 100 years have passed. Empires with planets under colonization are excluded. If accepted, the empire must refrain from any Colonization for the next 10 years.

Fallen Empires start with all standard, rare and dangerous technology including all technologies limited by ethics, as well as with ten levels in most repeatable technology and five levels in the rest. Also they possess a unique Dark Matter Reactor and Deflector which can be reverse engineered and are the second-best deflectors and best reactor available in the game.They do not, however, have any of the special technologies such as Enigmatic Decoder that are only available through reverse engineering or special events. Also they are usually explicitly exempt for all of the Crisis Spawn checks.

Fallen Empires have no labs on any of their planets and do not research further repeatable techs. After becoming Awakened Ascendancies, they may build labs, and will research new technologies but only very slowly, often taking upwards of 1000 months for even a single additional repeatable.

Fallen Empires own highly valuable systems. The planets of their home systems in particular are filled with City Districts and contain various complexes built using ancient technology that have exceptionally high output and are otherwise unavailable - even an Awakened Empire cannot build more of these special buildings. Depending on galaxy shape and empire placement, Fallen Empires will often control several other minor systems which are partially built up using regular buildings, and are of the Fallen Empire's primary race's preferred habitat (Ocean, Continental, Tropical etc.). However, should a Fallen Empire end up spawning at the tail end of a spiral arm where star systems are fewer, or if the game options set few habitable worlds, they may only have their home system and one other. All Fallen Empire home planets are fortified with unique defense buildings, making invasions difficult.

The Enigmatic Observers home system contains a gas giant known as Sky Father, orbited by three fully developed Gaia moons: Cradle (20), Mother (12) and Brother (10), and a broken moon called Sister. A nearby system will contain The Preserve (20), a Gaia world containing xeno preserves and between three to five random alien species. This planet may end up preserving pops of other species in the galaxy through the requests of the Enigmatic Observers.

The Holy Guardians home system contains two fully developed Gaia worlds: The Celestial Throne (30), and Sky Temple (22). There will also always be four Holy Worlds spawned near the Holy Guardians called Pristine Jewel (10), Emerald Mausoleum (14), Walled Garden (18), and Prophet's Retreat (25), all of which are Gaia worlds.

The Keepers of Knowledge home system contains a size 20 Ecumenopolis called Font of Knowledge. A nearby system contains a developed Gaia world called The Archives (15). If MegaCorp is not installed this is one of two ways to obtain an Ecumenopolis World (the other being to discover the First League homeworld).

The Militant Isolationists home system also contains two fully developed Gaia worlds: The Core (25), and its moon, called Boundary (12). There are also 3 Shielded worlds that can be found inside the Militant Isolationist's borders, with an associated special project for each world to lower the shield with different possible outcomes.

The Ancient Caretakers home system is called Alpha Refuge and contains a ringworld with three intact sections and one ruined section. Two nearby systems called Beta and Gamma refuges contain completely ruined ringworlds that can be restored, along with two more systems called Delta Refuge and Central Processing (a Black Hole) that are empty but littered with debris from destroyed ringworlds.

Fallen Empires do not use the standard ship types that are used by normal empires. Instead, they have Escorts, Battlecruisers and Titans. None of the values of those ship fully conform to any player buildable ships. They may also construct Colossi.

Escorts behave like destroyers, but their firepower and defense is as strong as cruisers. Escorts generally carry 4 Small weapons and 4 Point Defense, and a Large weapon to fight bigger ships.

Titans are the largest ships in the Fallen Empire's navy, rivaling several battleships and even surpassing Titans built by normal empires in power. Titans carry 1 Titanic weapon, 8 Large weapons, 4 Hangars and 4 Medium weapons.

Outpost is their defense platform. They occupy 2 platform capacity, but are much more powerful than regular platforms. Outposts carry 2 Large weapons, 5 Medium weapons and 2 Point Defense.

The exact military power, hull points, armor and shields may vary somewhat due to different weapon systems and access to Strategic Resources. Difficulty and admiral will also affect their combat strength.

Fallen Empire's ships and starbases use a powerful and unsalvageable weapon, the terrifying Titan Lance, an equivalent to the Perdition Beam which can destroy most warships with a single shot. They also possess several highly advanced ship components which can be salvaged from debris: Dark Matter Reactor (Reactor T6), Dark Matter Deflector (Shield T6) and Dark Matter Thrusters (Thruster T5). Their ships also possess a built-in self-repair which regenerates 2% of their maximum armor and hull per day.

While their ships are very powerful, sleeping Fallen Empires do not build new ones even to replace ones that have been destroyed. Instead, they will receive reinforcements (2 Battlecruisers and 8 Escorts each time) from events if they're at peace. However, if a Fallen Empire awakens, they will replenish their fleets normally. Escorts have a build time of 200 days while their counterparts the Destroyers take 120 days to build. A Battlecruiser's build time is 600 days compared to the 480 days it takes to build a Battleship. Titans take 1800 days to build, like ordinary Titans.

Fallen Empires do not re-design their ships, so player may design their ships to hardcounter them.

Each empire prefers a specific set of weapons that might be tied to the ethics they have. Ships should be tailored to an empire's specific loadout, to maximize effectiveness. While an awakened Fallen Empire can build new ships, it will not redesign them.

They start with 10 levels of every repeatable technology, but do not seem to research more - when awakened they will, but often taking upwards of 1000 months for a single extra repeatable. Do not try to out-tech them unless you are really far ahead.

Their planets are heavily fortified and require massive invasions to occupy. Orbital bombardment is not an option as the planets are protected by shield generators and most of their armies are protected by fortresses. An empire with access to the Colossus can use the Neutron Sweep to remove the inhabitants and then recolonize the planet.

Fallen Empire fleets are far more powerful than the diplomacy menu or fleet power counter might suggest. Their fleets will easily destroy enemies twice more powerful. Before declaring war on Fallen Empires, consider the possibility of losing most, or even all, of your assault fleets. Because of that, other players in multiplayer or powerful AIs will most likely declare war on you during your war with a Fallen Empire, so either leave some of your fleets behind or build up significant starbase defenses.

Unless you have a massive fleet power advantage, it is not advisable to fight in a star system in which a Fallen Empire has a Citadel unless you have already defeated and weakened their fleets. Fallen empires fight very aggressively, providing plenty of opportunities to fight them in your territory and in star systems of your preference.

If you have access to War Doctrines, it is generally not advised to select the Hit and Run policy, as high technology discrepancies mean that most ships are destroyed nearly instantaneously and without time to disengage. For this same reason, if you have access to the No Retreat policy, selecting it provides an abnormally large bonus (+33% Fire Rate) for inconsequential disadvantages.

The still-sleeping empire does not build ships, which makes them vulnerable to a war of attrition or multiple declarations of war in succession. If you have Defensive Pacts with another civilization, it is recommended to provoke the fallen empire into declaring war on you so that you have allies and (hopefully) improve your chances of winning. Corvette swarms equipped with Anti-shield and Anti-Armor weaponry and maxed out evasion should prove quite effective against them and their medium to extra-large guns, but do not fare that well against the Fighter Strike Craft or the Materialist Arc Emitters.
Their fleets will be at least two 40k blobs, possibly more depending on difficulty. The main goal in the first war should be to acquire their technology via salvage, as this can drastically improve the chances in a second war. Their troop transports should be defeated while in space as they can capture even a fully fortified planet with a normal stack.

Be warned that taking any Fallen Empire planets increases the chance of one FE awakening massively (to a near certainty), if that did not already happen.

There are several ways of fighting an Awakened Empire, depending on your position when they awaken.

The strongest empires stand a chance of defeating an awakened Fallen Empire on their own terms. Your long-term goal has to be to acquire as much territory as possible, in particular that of the still sleeping Fallen Empires to acquire their massive resource income and their technology before moving on to open war against the Awakened Empire. Be advised that any system they capture means an additional starbase they might build to reinforce their fleets quicker and allow large fleets.

Also keep in mind that you can use Containment casus belli (which will lead into a Total War) against an Awakened Empire. Use it if you feel confident.

The second strategy is temporarily submitting to the Awakened Empire. Once they awaken, Fallen Empires will acquire Decadence. Decadence reduces their income and fleet power while also increasing the rebelliousness of their subjects. Just be patient, build up your forces and wait for the right moment to rebel and overthrow them.

If an Endgame Crisis occurs, the Benevolent Interventionists or the Watchful Regulators may become Guardians of the galaxy. They will stop trying to reduce empires to Signatories or Satellites and form a Federation instead, so it's unnecessary to fight them if they awake late enough.

War in Heaven will dramatically change the power balance of entire galaxy in a short time, since it will quickly become a three-way battle royale that lasts until two of them are eliminated.

Regardless of which side you choose, remember that War in Heaven is a Total War casus belli, which means any occupied system immediately changes ownership. Choose your side wisely and keep in mind that the most important thing is always to survive. A careless choice may mean the end of your empire.

If you're too close to one of the awakened empires, joining their side may become the best choice unless you're strong enough to stop their fleets.

If you're in a powerful federation, or you're far away enough from them, joining a non-aligned league may end up with better results. The league will join the fight shortly after the War in Heaven starts, so be prepared for war.

Remaining entirely independent is advisable for most powerful empires, as they will still be asked by the Awakened Empire to become its subject. Refusing will turn them Belligerent and likely to declare a war of subjugation later.

If you find your empire is in a weird position (e.g. just between two awakened empires), choosing to stay independent may become the best choice.